


Come for the Eye Candy, Stay Forever

by CatrinaSL



Series: Three Things [12]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Cardamom, Cracked Marble Rolling Pin, F/F, F/M, Itchy Sweater, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, SHIP DARCY LEWIS WITH ALL THE THINGS, Three Things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-16 21:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13062090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatrinaSL/pseuds/CatrinaSL
Summary: Darcy gets a job at a bakery/coffee shop, even though she knows zero things about either. Luckily, her dream girl (and guy) have her covered.





	Come for the Eye Candy, Stay Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [morrib](https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrib/gifts).



> morrib prompted Cracked marble rolling pin, Cardamom, Itchy sweater.

Darcy knew a zero amount of bakery/coffeehouse things the day she walked past  _ The Cardamom Pod _ and saw their help wanted sign. 

The one thing she knew was that the woman putting it in the window was some kind of goddess and Darcy wanted to have her babies. Also, she needed a job. (Okay, that was more than one thing, but let's not get bogged down in those kinds of details.) Anyway, Darcy went in and just told her that, and she ended up with the job anyway. (The part about her ignorance of bakery and coffeehouse things and her lack of job, not her automatic crush.) It turned out that they didn't need a baker or a barista, they just needed someone to work the register.

Natasha (her name was actually Natasha. Darcy was pretty sure that if she looked it up in the dictionary, there'd be a picture there and the definition would be: "your dream girl") showed her how to use the espresso machine anyway, but it hissed angrily whenever Darcy came within two feet, so she tended to stay by the register where she belonged. The espresso machine definitely hated her.

Darcy wasn't needed in the kitchen, either. That was Steve's domain. Steve... the owner and baker of the shop (and defined in Darcy's dictionary as "your dream guy"). He was also ridiculously attractive; Darcy was convinced that half the customers came for the eye candy and stayed for the oatmeal cardamom muffins. After all, the eye candy was what had drawn  _ her _ . She'd stayed for the job, though (and the eye candy). Steve's muffins were just a bonus.

Natasha was a ridiculous flirt. She flirted with the customers, with Steve, and with Darcy. Darcy tried to give as good as she got, but she'd never been able to make Natasha blush; she would just snark right back at Darcy or eye her suggestively (or  _ wink _ . Natasha's winks did things to Darcy. In unprofessional regions). Darcy loved watching Natasha flirt with Steve. He turned so red sometimes that Darcy wasn't sure he was actually human... he might have been part tomato.

Steve didn't flirt, at least not overtly. He seemed to be trying (unlike Natasha) to keep things professional at work. That didn't stop him from making batches of Natasha's favorite brownies or the muffins for Darcy and saving plenty for each of them to take home after close. And... it was just the way he smiled. Maybe he wasn't interested in either Darcy or Natasha, but it was obvious he cared about both. ...Professionally.

Darcy rearranged her morning classes for several semesters so that she could work the register during the busiest time of day, and things continued on for a couple of years at  _ The Cardamom Pod _ in flirty harmony.

Until one lazy Wednesday afternoon...

Darcy arrived after her last class to park at her usual table and study or work as needed. It was Natasha's afternoon off, and Steve was poking at the espresso machine and doing front inventory. It seemed like a pretty sleepy day. Steve took care of the few customers that did come in, waving Darcy back to her studies every time she began to stand to go help him. 

Then disaster struck. (Well, not  _ right _ then, but it was the beginning of the disaster striking.) Steve asked Darcy to go check in the back to see how many lids they had left (he never believed that they went through them as quickly as they did). She did, and reported back.

"Would you mind grabbing last week's inventory from the office?" Steve called back to her. "I want to see if I ordered a box or if it was the week before."

He hadn't, and Darcy knew it, so she grabbed the previous two weeks before heading back up front.

_ That's _ when disaster struck.

The pocket of Darcy's jacket snagged on the end of Steve's prized marble rolling pin, and she watched in horrified slow motion as it spun off the kitchen table and hit the floor.

And cracked.

In half.

"Oh my god," Darcy squeaked, covering her hands with two weeks of inventory forms.

"Are you okay?!" Steve cried, rushing into the kitchen to see what had happened.

"Steve," Darcy moaned from behind her meager paper armor. "I'm sorry."

"My rolling pin," Steve whispered, in the same tone one might use to say something like, "my grandma just died."

"I'm sorry," Darcy repeated.

Steve was silent, and when Darcy peeked at him, his gaze was fixed on her blunder.

"I'm sorry," she tried again.

Steve blinked quickly, like he was trying to convince himself it was actually real, or...? "The shop's pretty slow today," he said, his voice cracking. "You can... go. If you want."

"I'm so sorry!"

Steve shook his head and bent to pick up the pieces of the gift that his best friend from the military had given him when he started culinary school. Darcy wasn't sure if he was trying to communicate that he didn't hate her or if he was shaking away her apology. Either way, she scurried out to the front, put the inventory sheets on top of the unfinished one, scooped up her stuff, and left.

An unavoidably early class kept Darcy from helping out at The Cardamom Pod the next morning, which also meant that by the time she got there in the afternoon, Steve was gone. Thursday afternoons were his day off, and she felt like an idiot for hoping he'd be there despite knowing that he probably wouldn't be, cracked marble rolling pin or not.

Natasha teased and flirted with her as usual, but seemed to get more and more concerned for her as the day went on. Finally, she sent Darcy to count down the drawer while she turned off the locked the door and swept.

"What  _ is _ it?" she asked, leaning in the door of the office.

Darcy sighed; she wasn't half finished with the drawer even though she would usually have tossed everything in the safe and gone to help Natasha already. She wasn't entirely sure Natasha wouldn't hate her, too, so she said, "Would you believe it's this sweater? It's the itchiest thing in the universe."

"I can buy that," Natasha said. "You've kinda been complaining about it all day. What else?"

Darcy shrugged innocently. "That's it..."

Natasha smirked and moved a little closer. "Why don't you take it off, then?"

"I'm not... really wearing anything underneath," Darcy admitted, blushing under Natasha's gaze.

"Really?" Natasha purred, looking Darcy up and down.

Darcy dropped the quarters back in the drawer; she'd lost count anyway. "Hey, if Steve fires me, do you think we—?"

Natasha blinked as though Darcy had flicked water at her. "Time out," she interrupted, halting Darcy's words. "Number one, yes. No rules against making out in the office. But more importantly, number two: why would you think Steve would ever fire you? You're the best thing to happen to this place since... well,  _ me _ ."

Thought left Darcy's brain at Natasha's suggestion; she'd hinted and winked, but never said something like that directly, out loud. It was a few seconds before her brain rebooted so that she could answer her second question, and thinking about it made her sigh and sag against the desk again.

"I broke his marble rolling pin," she admitted miserably. "And I tried to apologize, but he didn't even want to _look_ at me afterward. I don't know why I thought I'd see him today." She pulled at the hem of her sweater. "I stupidly wore this because he complimented it one day, but it's just been driving me nuts with its itchiness instead. Maybe I was just punishing myself."

"Darcy," Natasha said softly, using a comforting voice that she reserved only for when Darcy had royally screwed up. She knelt down next to the chair so that Darcy was looking down at her. "Steve cares way more about you than he does about his stupid rolling pin."

"That his best friend from the military gave him before he started culinary school?" Darcy interrupted. "I've heard him tell that story like eight million times. You didn't see his face. He hates me now."

"He doesn't," Natasha said, in such a convincing tone that Darcy almost believed her.

"How do you know?" she whispered, wishing she wasn't about to cry.

"Because we've talked about it," Natasha told her, reaching up to push a tear off Darcy's cheek.

"Talked about what?" Darcy asked, squeezing her eyes shut to fend off the tears.

"You. Asking you to—"

"What's going on?"

Natasha turned as Steve walked into the kitchen with a bag in his hand. Darcy swiped an itchy sleeve across her face to hide the tears (or maybe have an excuse for them; she was pretty sure she was allergic to wool).

"Darcy thinks you hate her because she accidentally broke your stupid rolling pin yesterday," Natasha tattled, standing to face Steve. "Did you really chase her out of here without even looking at her?"

Steve opened his mouth to explain, but apparently quailed before Natasha's gaze. "I... didn't mean to—"

"To what? Make her believe she was going to get fired? To  _ completely _ ruin our chances with her?"

"Natasha," Steve began. "It's not—"

"I'm done waiting," she told him, turning back to Darcy, who was pretty sure she was never going to get the drawer counted down at this point. "Darcy, Steve and I want you to be our girlfriend. Or maybe just  _ my _ girlfriend, if he actually does hate you."

"I don't—" Steve started to stay, stepping forward to put the bag on the prep table.

"Don't?" Natasha prompted.

"I  _ don't _ ," Steve repeated, glaring at her. "Want to pressure our  _ employee _ into a relationship she might not actually want because she thinks she's going to lose her job if she doesn't say yes."

Natasha crossed her arms and glared; obviously they'd had this argument before.

"Not to mention that if she says no, things will be awkward, so thank you for forcing this conversation."

As Steve carefully took a new marble rolling pin out of the bag and set it on the stand (in the  _ middle _ of the table instead of at the edge where it might catch on the pocket of someone's jacket and shatter on the floor), Natasha glanced at Darcy.

"You still haven't cleared up the issue of whether or not you hate her for breaking that stupid rolling pin that Bucky gave you."

"Maybe we should stop talking about her like she isn't here," Steve suggested, shrugging off his coat and hanging it on a nearby shelf.

Darcy took that as her cue to join the conversation, and stood.

"I'm sorry about your rolling pin," she told Steve.

"I'm sorry about shoving you out the door yesterday," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck a little bashfully. "I don't hate you. Mostly didn't want you to see me cry."

Natasha let out a disgusted sigh and rolled her eyes. "Stop talking, Steve, you're making it worse," she commanded.

"I didn't... know you two were together," Darcy admitted, but looking between them now, she wasn't sure how she could have missed it.

"We didn't mean to hide it," Steve told her. "I just don't want employees to feel uncomfortable."

"I have no problem with that," Natasha volunteered, raising a hand. 

"Yes, we know," Steve said. "You chased away our last three employees."

"That was two years ago, Steve. Cut me some slack. Plus Darcy hasn't run screaming from the conversation yet, so why don't you let her answer?" 

Natasha glared at Steve and Steve glared back, so Darcy kissed Natasha.

* * *

"You going?" Steve asked as Darcy shoved her GRE prep books into her bag and shouldered it.

She nodded, letting out a nervous breath. "I'll text Nat when I'm done. Then I want an entire cake. And a nap."

"Hey," Steve said, slipping his hands around her waist and pulling her close for a hug. "You'll do great. I know it. We believe in you."

Darcy smiled up at him, and Steve swooped down to kiss her. It was a pretty good one, and took away most of her pre-GRE jitters. "Thanks," she said breathlessly. "I think I'm good now."

Steve gave her an encouraging smile as she walked out of  _ The Cardamom Pod _ , past the help wanted sign in the window.

Come for the eye candy, stay forever.

**Author's Note:**

> [Prompt a Three Things fic!](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7S2MbkK0CxVHMG3kF8CD6fYqD0zwY-J6MqLb21nmFyRpE4w/viewform)
> 
> [Reblog on tumblr](http://catrinasl.tumblr.com/post/168697688243/come-for-the-eye-candy-stay-forever)
> 
> Tumblr: [catrinasl](http://catrinasl.tumblr.com)
> 
> Twitter: [@Catrina_SL](http://twitter.com/Catrina_SL)


End file.
